Keep on keeping on...

Sunday, February 24, 2013

I've had trouble tracking my progress lately, but I keep on keeping on!! It turns out the scale I was using was my brother-in-law's scale, and he was upset that I had been using it. It records your past weigh-ins, so my use was messing up his results, so he took it to "his" bathroom. I have ordered a new scale that had good reviews, but it won't get here until next week.

Scaleless, I trudge on. No reason to quit now... I do know that I have lost about an inch and a half off my waist.

I still have kept my resolution of 6 days a week working out, though sometimes hanging by a thread! I still have kept up with 4 days of strength training. The other day, I found out I can now do 1 1/2 full lat pull-ups unassisted! Yeah, yeah, I used to be able to do 10-12, but I'm "living in the now." LOL

I have some not so good news on my body mass readings. As some of you may remember, as a result of my father's death last October, I was unable to eat much for a long time. From August until when I started tracking again January 22nd, I had lost 2.3 lbs. Seems like I at least maintained, however, I know by how my clothes fit that I had actually lost a lot more due to lack of eating - but then gained it back later on... So even though it seems I had lost 2.3 lbs, I had lost 10 lbs of lean mass and then GAINED 7.7 lbs of fat! And this measurement was after I had been working out for 3 weeks and doing strength training again, so I think the damage had been even worse before that!

However, from Jan 22 to when I lost use of the scale on Feb 17, in about 3 1/2 weeks, I had dropped 2.2% bodyfat, lost 5.5 lbs of fat, but also lost 2.5 lbs of lean mass. So, I think I need to eat a bit more. Especially now, I am remodeling my sister's bathroom, so with the added construction work, I have been very worn down. I am considering wearing my Bodymedia calorie monitor armband again. When I run, it's easy to calculate 100 miles per mile burnt, on top of my sedentary burn. Construction work calorie burn is harder to gauge, but last year I discovered it can be hundreds of calories! It's a tough balance to have a high enough deficit to lose weight but not too high in order to NOT lose lean mass and get fatigued.

Anyway! Back to remodeling work. Hope you guys are having a great week! Upward and onward...

Glad you are finding ways to keep going in spite of the setbacks; it really is hard to gauge calorie burn with something like construction. Hope your scale comes soon and you like it; we invested in a Withings scale and love it.

I am very interested in what you are saying. I was actually looking at the Bodymedia calorie monitor armband. What do you think of it? I have a polar heart rate monitor but I think the battery had started going low and I have not worn it for quite some time. I considered getting something new.

Sounds like you are definitely on the right track. Keep up the great work and it will pay off when you get your scale next week. That is another question I have for you. Sorry, I am making this all about me. Your progress as however very much impressed me and I appreciate your opinion. Did you get a scale that measures body fat or how do you measure?

I sometimes wish I had the problem of not eating enough - almost never a problem for me! But I know that when it's tied to grief it's never a good thing; I did have trouble eating for maybe a week wafter we put Simba to sleep . . . and gained weight.